Chū
Chū/Gallery Chū (酎,Chū) is an ally/friend of Yusuke Urameshi and the former leader of Team Rokuyukai during the Dark Tournament Saga. He was called Joe in the Filipino dub of the anime. In the anime television series, Chū is voiced by Norio Wakamoto in Japanese, Kent Williams in English and Neil Yu in Filipino who also voices Kuwabara Appearance Chū has a well-built, muscular body and an excellent posture when he is sober. He is very tall, towering over most of the people he meets with at least four inches to spare. Chū has a long, electric blue punk-like mohawk with two ponytails in the back. The two ends of his hair are wrapped up with a red ribbon. He has a messy and rather short goatee and mustache, as well as a green-striped tattoo under his eyes and above the bridge of his nose. He wears fur-lined black boots and tanktop. He also has olive green pants and a red sash belt. He speaks with an Australian accent in the English dub (possibly due to his similar appearance to Wez, the Australian warrior-biker from the movie Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior) while in the original Japanese version he merely speaks with a thick and masculine but otherwise drunken speech pattern. Personality Chū is a serious drunk, stumbling into the ring and attempting to fight, surprising all of Team Urameshi. However, this is a ploy for him to reveal his true power. While drunk, he is rather cocky and also rather fond of the ladies (as seen by his flirting with Koto). Like Yusuke, he has a lust for battle and is willing to go to extremes to make the fight more interesting, such as his addition of the unorthodox "knife-edge death match." After being defeated by Yusuke, Chū expresses a desire to fight him again in a rematch, and later becomes a valuable ally and friend to his former enemy, due in large part to his fighting prowess and honorable nature. In a flashback, Chū is shown to be an all-around good guy as seen when he saved his teammate Rinku from some demon thugs prior to the Dark Martial Arts Competition. Synopsis Dark Tournament Saga Chū first appears after Zeru is defeated by Hiei. He explains to the audience that the only reason he wasn't in the first matches was because he lost at Paper, Rock, Scissors, the method his team used to decide on their roster prior to the match. The smell of Chū's alcohol wakes Yusuke up, and the two step into the ring. Yusuke insults Chū's drunken fighting style, which leads to Chū to releasing his unique spirit energy before starting to stumble around the ring at top speed. Though Yusuke manages to block his first attack, Chū continues to attack with such speed only Hiei can see. Yusuke manages to survive the attacks, and tells Chū to beware of his spirit gun, firing off a warning shot into the air. Afterwards, Chū drinks the most potent alcohol in all of Demon World, Ogre Killer, and his aura begins to glow wildly. He uses a technique similar to the spirit gun, but with such a large radius, Yusuke is forced to use his Spirit Gun Double attack to counter. At this point, all of Yusuke's ammo is gone. With Chū's energy reserves exhausted as well, Chū proposes the two decide to fight a knife-edge death match. After a slight delay, during which time Yusuke and Chū laugh at their helplessness, the Tournament Committee gives the change in rules a collective nod. The two hit each other back and forth, but don't budge from their location, with their rear heels remaining on the knife edge. The more hits, the more their feet bleed. They attempt to end the fight with a colossal headbutt, and Yusuke stands victorious after Chū's ten count is up. Yusuke concludes that his new rival Chū is more suited to tapping kegs than tapping heads. Chū comes to and honorably asks Yusuke to finish him off, as they agreed to fight a deathmatch. Yusuke cheerfully refuses, promising Chū a rematch in the future, and so the two become friends. He later shows up with Rinku, including Jin and Touya, who are former members of Team Masho that Yusuke's team had defeated, to support Yusuke in the finals. After the tournament finals, Chū himself blasts a boulder out of the way of Yusuke and his friends so they can escape the collapsing stadium. Three Kings Saga During the Saga of the Three Kings, Chū trains under Genkai to become an A Class (anime)/S Class (manga) demon and joins the Makai Tournament; though automatically surrenders to a demon girl named Natsume whose strength is upper S class, on whom he has a crush; in the anime, this happened in the preliminaries, while in the manga, this happened in the first round. After he surrenders he asks her out, but she says he's too weak. It's at that point he says that in less than 2 years he would become stronger than her. Later he is seen training with Natsume who asks him if he's given up, at which he shouts no. Later during a conversation with Kujou she states the Chū is getting stronger all the time, and that he really could reach her level in less than 2 years. Kujou then asks her if she would date him then. She responds saying no, and states that she isn't interested in weak men. However, Natsume rapidly goes in Chū's defense when Kujou insults him. His silhouette can be seen in the OAV, along with Jin and Suzuka, moments before the second Demon World Tournament begins, along with two featureless shadows that are presumably Touya and Shishiwakamaru. Abilities and Skill When he is first introduced, Chū is equal in power to an upper C class demon. After training with Genkai, he becomes an upper A class (middle S Class in the manga). Afterward, he loses to Natsume in the Demon World Tournament, and begins training with her, becoming an even stronger S class. By the end of the series, he is well on his way to becoming an upper S class demon. Powers and Abilities Fighting style Alcohol Empowerment: Chu gains additional strength to his already incredible power when he consumes alcohol most notably the Ogre Killer drink. Enhanced Speed: Chu has been shown to have exceptional speed. Drunken Fist: Sui Ken (酔拳, literally translated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zui_Quan Drunken Fist]): A type of fighting style where one's skills in hand-to-hand combat actually increase with the more alcohol he drinks. This is due to the fact that the more drunk the fighter is, the more unpredictable his movements and attacks become, making him a deadly opponent. Chū possesses extreme physical strength, especially in his fists and head, which was able to shatter a mountain. It is possible Chū uses his demon energy to enhance his strength in a manner similar to Yusuke's Spirit Punches, only focusing it on his head in his case. He is also rather fast, quickly punching Yusuke a few times while dodging some of the latter's attacks at the same time. Known techniques and moves * Demon Alchemy: Although seemingly a drunkard, Chu's appetite for liquor is to mask the fact that his talent is being able to utilize the alcohol content of whatever he drinks into his bloodstream and converts it into his aura, empowering him and granting him vast access to outside reserves of energy. This is shown by example by him finishing his binge with drinking Ogre Killer (Onigoroshi in the original Japanese Version), the most potent sake in the Demon Realm. Upon converting the alcohol in his bloodstream, Chū's skin darkens and his hair turns from blue to purple, a likely sign of increased power, and sobers up. While Chū is in this powered-up state, his aura eclipses the stadium and Hiei comments that alcohol can be seen mixed in with his demon energy. * Ogre Killer: Not to be confused with the drink, Chū mixes the alcohol of the same name with his demon energy in order to generate a ball of energy to use as an attack, akin to the Spirit Gun, only orange in color. Chū throws this blast, like a baseball pitcher throws a fastball, when he uses this technique. This technique was never named in either the original Japanese or the English dub, but is called as such in the video game Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament, and is called Spirit Ball Shot in Tournament Tactics. Chū seems to prefer hand-to-hand combat over this technique, as he is not seen using it in the Makai tournament or during Genkai's training. : :* Ogre Boulder: The size of the blast can be controlled, as well. He can drastically increase the size of the ball of energy, and increase its destructive power. In the video game, this attack is known as such in Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament, and the Block-Buster in the English manga. * Knife Edge Death Match: Not so much a technique, but a type of fight that Chū enjoys. By stabbing two knives in the ground, both fighters put the bottom of their foot on the blade. During the match, the two contestants pummel each other with their bare fists. The only rule is no one can step outside the line made by those knives; if they do, it's sudden death, and no weapons are allowed. The loser if pushed back far enough cuts his or her foot on the edge of the blade. The grievous injury that occurs would strongly inhibit the fighter in future battles (especially in a tournament), thus is risky for both fighters (fortunately for Chū, he fell forward). * Barrier: Chū is also capable of refining his energy into a force field to defend himself and others against falling rocks (as he did during the Dark Tournament's grand final in order to protect himself and his friends against Younger Toguro's monstrous demon energy). * Flight: During his training with Genkai, he demonstrated limited levitation by surrounding his body with demon energy. * Teleportation Relationships [[Rinku|'Rinku':]] Chū is good friends with Rinku which is unsurprising as they're the only remaining survivors of Team Rokuyukai. During the Dark Tournament, Rinku remembers a time when Chū utilized his Sui Ken technique to save him from a gang full of thugs. Chū seems to think of Rinku as a little brother, as he continues to train with, and presumably watch over the younger Rinku, from the time they first met. Rinku has great respect and admiration for Chū's prowess as a fighter, and is seen complimenting Chū from the sidelines during his matches. Still Rinku is just as likely to criticize Chū, often resulting in a smack to Rinku's head. The two also goaded each other about their ability to get distracted by attractive demonesses. [[Yusuke|'Yusuke:']] Chū begins a friendly rivalry with Yusuke during their fight in the Dark Tournament. Initially, the two are simply competitors, but both gain tremendous respect for each other after witnessing the others' toughness and skill in the ring. This bond of friendship is formed after Yusuke spares Chū's life after the knife edge death-match, and Chū sets beating Yusuke in the future as his goal. Later he is seen creating an exit from the collapsing stadium and shows his honor by helping the champion team. He continues to train hard and looks forward to his next encounter with Urameshi, which leads to a joyful reunion in Gandara. After the 1st Makai Tournament, He said Goodbye to Yusuke as him and the Other Demons of Yusuke trains for the Next Demon World Tournament, hoping to beating Urameshi in the future and then, Joining Yusuke and His Team. [[Natsume|'Natsume:']] Chū's love interest in the series catches his eye and forces the blood to his cheeks during their encounter during the Makai Tournament Preliminaries. Chū is smitten with her right off and is quick to admit defeat when he becomes aware of the vast difference in their demon energy levels. Initially, it seems as if Natsume is completely uninterested as she goads Chū for being weak, but Chū remains unshaken and asks for her hand, promising to train until he's much stronger. Later, in the manga, the two are seen training together, with Chū presumably being well on his way to matching her in power. This could also be taken as a sign that Natsume has begun to respect and maybe admire Chū for his determination. Thus, it is speculated that she at least somewhat returns his feelings, as she is quick to defend Chū when Kujou insults him. Koto: Chū's love interest at first sight during the Dark Tournament, though probably not his first- he just as quickly left her for Natsume, as if the romance was a one-night stand. Though Chū was attracted to Koto for mainly her looks, he also appreciated her ability to understand his unintelligible jabber. She didn't seem to return the interest, though she was arguably upset over Chū's failed pickup lines at Natsume, shown in the Makai Tournament. Trivia *In the English Dub, Chū has an Australian accent to show his laidback personality. *To simplify his motive for wanting to fight Yusuke again, Chū enjoys a good scrap with anyone who can give him a challenge. *Chū's name literally translates to Sake, as a reference of him being a drunken fighter. *During the Makai Tournament, Chū has a Rei-Ki of 121,600. *The edited dub omitted the details of Chū's fighting style of using alcohol for his Sui Ken and instead showed his Sui Ken abilities without any explanation, while in the uncut version, which is more common, the explanation is still there. *Along with Jin, Chū makes the most appearances in video games among Kurama's Six Demons, presumably due to their rivalries with Yusuke. They were also the first two guesses Kuwabara made when he wondered who their new teammate was. *In the Dark Tournament video game, the Knife Edge Death Match is basically a Rock Paper Scissors minigame, in which Yusuke has to predict Chū's moves. This is ironic due to Chū's terrible luck at Rock Paper Scissors *Chū actually replaces Botan in the English dub for a "Preview of the Next Episode" segment, in which he talks about how excited he is about the Makai tournament. *Chū's fighting style, Sui Ken, is based on the kung fu style Zuiquan. While the aspect of the user being drunk while fighting was popularized by Jackie Chan's movies. Real Zuiquan only mimics the movements of a drunkard in order to confuse the opponent and strikes with unpredictable punches and kicks. *Gōki and Chū, demons of two different classes, share the same seiyu, Norio Wakamoto. *Like Rugby, Chu's abilities, Ogre Boulder & Ogre Killer are referenced by Razor's ability from Togashi's next work, Hunter x Hunter. *In the Filipino Dub, his voice was provided by Kuwabara's voice actor, Neil Yu as he portrays Chū in a rougher and deeper voice. References Navigation Category:Characters Category:Demons Category:Male Characters Category:Upper A-Class Demons Category:Upper S-Class Demons Category:S-Class Category:Yusuke's Allies Category:Alive Characters Category:Former Villains